


Freedom's Forms

by Raven_Silversea



Series: Whumptober 2020 [5]
Category: XCOM (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Pre-Canon, Symbols of Rebellion, underground railroad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-10
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:28:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26934367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raven_Silversea/pseuds/Raven_Silversea
Summary: It's not as easy as walking away from ADVENT and following a map to the Skirmisher base. There are safe houses and dodging patrols and the silent rebellion of humans lighting the way with pieces of history the Elders never bothered to learn.
Series: Whumptober 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948642
Kudos: 5





	Freedom's Forms

**Author's Note:**

> Day 5: On the run, ~~Failed escape~~ , ~~Rescue~~
> 
> Why is this five days late? Because I kept running out of spoons, but it's here now

Mox observes the ADVENT squad patrolling the street. An officer, two troopers, a challenge for any single person. An impossibility when he was forced to leave his weapons behind.

“Never know if they have tracking devices or not,” the blue-eyed conductor had said. “Better to just pull them apart and dump the pieces in a supply box for XCOM.” She had passed Mox’s weapons to her wife who took them into the hidden basement, never to be seen again.

The patrol passes. Mox slips through the shadows and across the street. So far, he has yet to see a blue and red flag hanging in a front window.

It’s intelligent, Mox thinks, for each safe house to have a different symbol. ADVENT looks for patterns, but Mox has come to learn that humans find patterns in the most seemingly unrelated of things.

The blue-eyed conductor had grinned when he asked about the yellow flag in the window. “That’s my dad’s Gadsden flag. He liked to collect flags, so I have a fuck ton of them now.” She pulled it from the window and let him have a closer look. “Timber rattlesnake with thirteen rattles to represent the thirteen original colonies. Adopted in 1778 during the war for independence against Britain.” Beneath the coiled snake were the words ‘Don’t tread on me’.

“Were they successful?”

The conductor’s grin turned more into a baring of teeth. “We kicked their asses and called ourselves the United States of America.”

The hiss of a viper has Mox pressing back against a wall. Not for the first time, he envies XCOM for their ability to blend in with the civilians. Even if he still had his armor, he would stand out as an unassigned officer on the patrol. As the viper stops almost directly in front of him, he wonders if his second conductor’s ancestors felt the same throat-clenching fear he does now.

“Follow the North Star, they said,” the black-skinned conductor had whispered. “All the way up to Canada where you can be free.” Mox had stared down at the large silver star that had hung in the front window. Taking it from Mox, the conductor places it back in the window where it would glow throughout the night. “That’s why we call this the Underground Railroad. Why houses like this are called stations and we call ourselves conductors,” he had continued. “Cause we’re ferrying ADVENT’s slaves away to freedom.”

The viper and their trooper escort pass by, and Mox darts across the street to the next line of houses. Crouching beside someone’s trash cans, he sees it: a blue and red horizontal stripe flag hanging in a window. He looks up and down the street. No patrols, no moving curtains indicating a peeping neighbor, no one taking a late evening walk before curfew.

“Vox-tala for ten,” Mox whispers. Across the street, up the stairs, he knocks three short, three long, and three short on the door. The door opens, and a white-haired woman beckons him inside.

Shutting the door, she looks him over. “Looks like you can use some food in ya.” She nods. “I’ll get you something. Won’t take long to reheat it.” She brushes past him into the kitchen, and Mox takes in the conductor’s home. Knitted blankets drape over the backs on brown couches. Paintings of mountains, forests, and beaches line the wall across the window, and picture frames hang on either side of the yellow curtains. Different family portraits of brown-skinned adults and children, some including a younger version of the conductor.

“Here you go. Don’t go spilling anything on my carpet now.” Mox carefully cradles the bowl of stew in his hands and slowly begins eating it as he sits on the edge of a couch. The conductor sits across from him in a rocking chair that squeaks as she rocks back and forth.

“Thank you for the meal. It is very good.”

The conductor waves him off. “Don’t you worry about it. Lord, knows my children don’t visit often enough, especially with the travel restrictions.” She sighs. “It gets lonely not having anyone to share a meal with.”

Mox takes a few more bites of stew. “The flag, what was it’s original purpose?”

That earns Mox a broad smile. “Why it’s the Haitian flag. I was born there you know. Immigrated here with my husband and eldest daughters ages ago.”

“How does it relate to the other symbols? The Gadsden flag, the North Star…”

The rocking chair squeaks as the conductor rocks backwards. “Haiti was once ruled by France. One day, the slaves revolted. Killed their masters and took their freedom and independence by force. The French government had no choice to abolish slavery and give them their rights.” She looks at him. “When France moved to re-establish slavery, they revolted and won their independence.” She rocks back in her chair and looks through the gap in the curtains. “It is the flag of a country built by slaves who freed themselves.”

Mox nods. “A worthy goal indeed.”

The conductor hums. Silence falls between them, save for the squeaking of the rocking chair. Just before dawn, the white-haired conductor will wake Mox up, hand him a crude drawing of a bronze three-petaled lily, and send him out the door to the next station.

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on [Tumblr](https://ravensilversea.tumblr.com/) and [Pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.social/Raven_Silversea)


End file.
